Ig Nobel Prize for research into the smell of babies and teenagers

Zurich. Are parents more concerned about the body odor of their babies or their teenagers? A team with German participation investigated this and has now received a prize for curious research in Zurich.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are intended first to make people laugh, then to think, as the inventors say. “Science can also be funny,” said Ilona Croy, award winner from the University of Jena, to the dpa in Zurich. “It’s nice to be recognized for it.”

The discovery that mosquito proboscis can be used as 3D printing nozzles also won a prize. Also honored was a team that discovered that well-off people are more likely to snack on their children's sweets than people with less money. The successful experiments for a urinal from which no squirting occurs were also recognized.

The fun effect is always very important at the award ceremony. This time the prize trophy looked like a mushroom growing from a foot - on a wedge that resembled blue cheese.

However, seriousness is the background for the award ceremony's move, which for the first time since 1991 is taking place not in the USA but in Europe. The background was the political situation in the USA with its strict visa policy and brutal operations by the immigration police, it was said.

Marc Abrahams feared that it might no longer be safe for guests to travel to the USA. He is the editor of the satirical scientific journal "Annals of Improbable Research" about curious research, which awards the prizes. The ceremony is scheduled to take place in Antwerp in 2027.

Regarding Croy's research: "The older the child, the worse the smell is," she says. “At least no one is running around after the teenagers and kissing them on the head because they smell so good.” But it's not because of the teenagers' hygiene, she emphasizes.

The team found that the smell of a baby switches on neural circuits in the brain that lead to caring. “Parents’ caring behavior comes not only from the big googly eyes or babbling sounds that the baby makes, but also from the smell,” she says. “The smell also triggers the reflex in us that we care.” The team had adults smell scents from babies and teenagers while scanning the brain.

The smells came from cotton fabrics that babies and children wore overnight after being washed with neutral soap and sleeping in fragrance-free bedding. While parents generally found baby smells pleasant and were more likely than average to recognize their own baby among several others, teenage smells were perceived more poorly. This is due to the hormones of puberty, says Croy.